The Fusion of Breathing and Exercise.

The DeepSlowEasy exercises integrate breathing
directly into the basic method of each stretching or strength exercise.
The movement is coordinated with your breathing. This structured and
scientific fusion of breathing and movement is extraordinary in the
world of exercise. You do not hold a dynamic stretch or perform a strength
exercise for a certain number of 'counts' or 'seconds' as do Iyengar,
Pilates, Bikram, and countless other approaches. In DeepSlowEasy breathing
exercise, you use your own breathing to regulate duration and intensity!
A very simple approach to exercise and health. Here's why this revolutionary
approach is so important....

By using breathing as the mechanism to control
time in the movement, you focus on how your body is reacting to balance,
stretch, inertia, weight distribution, and all the other phenomenon
of moving. This method eliminates the cognitive aspect of counting seconds
and the passage of time. It allows you to focus more on your body and
less on your mind.

The Science of DeepSlowEasy Breathing

Most DeepSlowEasy movements are performed
for 2, 4, or 6 deep slow breaths. By lengthening the stretching time of
the exercise from 2 to 4 to 6 deep slow breaths, you transcend the boundry
between an 'easy' and 'developmental' stretch. A developmental stretch
is better since you overcome the initial muscle tension and resistence.
The figure below shows the transition stages.

The transition between an easy
and developmental stretch or movement occurs at about 20-30 seconds.
The problem was to calculate using the scientific (experimental) method
how many deep slow breaths were 'normal' in a 20-30 second time interval.
This required a little 'reverse engineering.'

A non-parametric experiment was performed (counterbalanced
for age and sex) to establish the 'optimum' number of deep slow breaths.
Twenty people were asked to breath deep and slow at their own pace for
20 -30 seconds. The number of full, complete breaths was counted until
25 - 30 seconds was attained. The results showed that 4 to 6 deep slow
breaths take approximately 20-30 seconds. This is the approximate time
period it takes to move from a static easy stretch to a developmental
stretch.

These exercises are very conservative about starting
levels of personal fitness. Refer to the Advice poster that identifies
many of the things you must consider before doing any type of exercise.
Each cardiovascular exercise, like Walking, provides exercise guidance
according to your resting heart rate, age, activity level or lifestyle,
and ambient humidity level and temperature.

The Direct Benefits

Deep slow breathing during the
stretch ensures lung aeration, flushing out the CO2 and bringing in
fresh air. Deep slow breathing ensures lung aeration, induces aeration,
and relaxation. This mechanism promotes greater stretching capability
and vital lung capacity. The result is lower blood pressure in the absence
of the Valsalva effect. The Valsalva effect is a closing of the glottis
accompanied by increased intrathoracic pressure. This happens when you
hold your breath. You do not want this to happen during normal 'aerobic'
exercising.

Here's another benefit. Breathing during stretching
contracts muscles that squeeze blood past one-way valves in blood vessels
going back to the heart. Blood is pumped to the lungs where it receives
oxygen from rhythmic breathing. This improves blood flow and muscle
elasticity.

So there are a lot of benefits to this method
of breathing exercise.

How Strength and Endurance Increases.

Muscle strength and endurance are increased by
varying the number of repetitions of exercises. Moderately high level
of repetitions are achieved in conditioning phase movements in this
program. They include the Curlup, Pressup, Kick and Arch, Olympic Situp,
and Rotations.

A range of repetitions is provided with each
exercise. You select the most comfortable yet challenging level. Users
are encouraged to start off at a low level and gradually progress to
a more strenuous level. Muscle endurance is developed by utilizing the
'progression technique', starting at a safe level of repetition and
resistence and slowly increasing intensity. This approach to physical
fitness enhances the 'training effect.' The body becomes accustomed
to stress slowly without strain. And users are less likely to fail and
quit the program.

Muscle endurance is improved by decreasing the
rest interval between cardiovascular and skeletal muscle exercises.
Improvement in muscle elasticity, strength, and endurance takes place
systematically as a function of changing certain variables like lengthening
stretching time, changing load or resistence, and increasing number
of repetitions. These variables directly affect 'progressive overload',
the means of attaining increased strength and endurance. Progression,
a prerequiste of circuit training, occurs naturally since each user
can increment several variables at his own rate and level.

Origin of DeepSlowEasy Movements.

The DeepSlowEasy movements are modeled after
traditional circuit training methods. It was originally called the Every
Body Program when it was first released in 1979. The Every Body Program
was one of many circuit training programs popular in the early 1980s.
But this program was the only one that you could do without a lot of
support structures. It was designed in the late 1970s to be versatile
and flexible for all time; unrestricted by technology, weather, or the
immediate physical environment. You could do the movements in hotel
rooms, your living room, or outdoors in parks and recreation areas.

It was developed as an alternative to ballistic
exercise programs. It combines slow, dynamic stretching with muscle
strengthening exercises. These combine to develop strength, balance,
endurance, and flexibility slowly at each user's entry level and pace.
Rotational, lateral extension, and forward-backward stretching exercises
are sequenced to bilaterally develop muscles for better fitness and
posture. These exercises counteract the debilitating effects of sitting
in chairs, typing at a keyboard, and staring at computer displays.

Practicing Deep
Slow Breathing.

Since deep slow breathing provides the underlying
mechanism for performing many of these exercises, it is extremely important
to learn early. You must practice it when you're waiting at a stop light
in your car, before you go to sleep, when you feel stressed, just about
any time. It's done in four simple movements as shown in the illustration.

Deep Slow Breathing, referred to as 'complete
breathing' or 'master breathing', is really only 1 of 10 different types
of breathing. It's great for stimulating internal visceral organs and
pushing out the stale, stagnant air that collects in our lower lungs.

If you are asthmatic, you might try pursing your
lips slightly to increase the Venturi effect and force your lungs to
exert a little extra effort on inhalation. This will strengthen your
lungs more than mouth breathing.

The Human Factors Elements of
DeepSlowEasy

Human factors engineering
is the cornerstone for the display and integration of DeepSlowEasy exercising
information, web site, and graphics. For instance, the posters are designed
for left-to-right easy reading. Each poster has 3 graphics to depict
the movement. Graphics reduces training time and errors. You are better
able to understand the movement. Each movement is broken down into 3
movements. This is the 'part task' embodiment of robust training and
learning method. Each step is numbered. The sequential numbering eliminates
ambiguity.

A wide range of performance levels is provided
to challenge the novice and experienced user. Users can increase either
the 'holding time' for stretching exercises or the number of repetitions
for calisthenic exercises.

All precautions are taken to safely guide the
user through the cardiovascular training phases. Ambient temperature,
humidity, resting heart rate, age, and lifestyle data are presented
to prevent over exertion. "No pain without gain" is the stupidest
phase on the planet!